I am a 26f, I started out at 160lbs. I have been doing IF 16:8 for about 3 weeks now and working out about 4 days a week, i also cut out sugar, coffee intake to 1 cup a day, and significantly healthier food and smaller portions.. and I’ve only lost a few pounds..I thought I would see better results…am I doing something to stunt the weight loss ? It sucks doing so much and barely getting any results.
Take measurements, progress pics, and compare to old clothes. These will tell you a better story of your weight loss progress than a scale can.
And considering you’ve been working out, that makes the scale more irrelevant.
I know it’s so hard to be patient when you’re working hard at sticking to a new way of eating and exercise and the scale is slow to move. Two important things to remember - your cycle can make water retention and weight loss unpredictable, so you may slow or stall and then have a whoosh of several pounds, and to everyone else’s points, muscle gain can change things, so measurements are key. Great job on your first month!
We are in a similar situation! I’m also 26F doing 16:8 for the last 3 weeks. Starting weight was 178, & got so mad when I weighed in after 2.5 weeks at only 176.5. I had a body comp done at my gym & it showed that I lost 5 lbs of fat & gained .5 lbs of muscle. I also had 2 lbs of additional water weight due to the time of the month. That made me feel much better about my progress. I’d give it another week & maybe check the scale again later. :)
It will take time to see results. I lost 14 kg over a period of 10 months. I think I lost maybe 1.5 kg for the first couple of months before it dropped to around 1 kg. You are doing everything right. As everyone has said here, you just need to be patient and give the process time.
“am I doing something to stunt the weight loss?”
Hard to say so early, but here is something to keep in mind for later:
Not clumping food intake together enough, is a common mistake. For 16:8 you want a 6hr fasting window in the middle of that ‘eating window’. Making it 16:1:6:1.
This ‘clumping together’ of calorie intake is the most important thing for IF, because it allows meals to remain fairly large, which sends an all-important signal to the body, that ‘starvation mode’ should not be triggered.
I’d say within a week and this is just in my opinion and experiences.
I stay hydrated throughout the day and typically have about 70 ounces by the end of the day, staying hydrated helps alot.
I feel like my face is showing more bone structure and not puffy, my upper chest and chest area is looking leaner. Cheekbones, jawline.
Around my arms I’m more vascular and veins are popping and visible.
I have a flabby belly area and that’s where it shows the most but I can see the torso leaning out and its been only since last Thursday that I’ve been doing IF. Also around my ribs it’s leaning out around there. Belly and love handles also not as big.
Pants definitely feel looser.
I started with 16:8 but changed it to 18:6 so I could break my fast on my work lunchbreak and several times ended up fasting closer to 20 hours but I stayed with it.
I do need to start exercising again so I started doing just a set of pushups and squats but need to add more like I had been before starting IF.
Friday into Saturday I’m gonna do a 20 hour fast and 4 hour eating window even though I’ve already done two days at work fasting 19 and a half hours, I just want to experience a 20 hour fast.
Hey all this is just me sharing what I’ve experienced and hope it motivates you to stay on the path, similar to the old man in the Golden Child movie when he talks to Eddie Murphys character crossing the bridge in that corridor.
“Stay on the path!”.
✌️❤️stay hydrated throughout the day cause it helps you body maintain its functions and you wont get groggy and brain foggy, I say to myself “if my pee ain’t clear then it’s time for a cup of water” but that’s just how I do.